Wallace takes Driffield success

4:47pm Friday 28th February 2014

NORTHALLERTON enduro rider Robbie Wallace, 16, made a great start to the season in the first round of the Perkins Slade Ride off Road Enduro Championship last weekend when he scored a fine second place aboard his Motoconnection sponsored Yamaha YZ125.

The race was held at the Driffield Army Training area, which had some large flooded areas that the riders needed to be cautious of, although some of the open parts of the track were well drained. The meeting attracted 137 entries starting in rows of 30 for the two- hour race.

In sunny conditions, Wallace made a good start out of the gate although could only manage fourth into the first bend. While trying to move up positions on the first lap, he got alongside another rider who rode through some deep water which drenched Robbie and set the scene for a wet day of racing.

It took about ten ten minutes to complete a lap and after three laps the leaders started to come up on the back markers. At this stage, Wallace was running third although it was difficult to tell with the number of machines circulating, some of which were a lap down.

As the race progressed, the track began to dry out which made the lap times drop by about a minute, while Wallace had a couple of minor crashes in his eagerness to pass back markers which proved just how hard he was trying.

Once relaxed, Robbie set consistent lap times which ensued although he had dropped to fourth place by this point. After about 90 minutes his fitness came to the fore and he managed to gain back two places by the finish, thus ending up second to Brandon Sharples, from Blackburn, going into next week’s second round of the series.

Wallace said afterwards: “With the number of riders on narrow sections of the course, it was very difficult to pass and you had to be patient but I’m really pleased with second, which is a great start to the championship.”

THE Jack Neal Memorial Rally took place at Blyton, in Lincolnshire, under gloriously sunny skies last weekend and saw a couple of local crews challenging for the outright victory.

Bishop Auckland’s Tristan Pye and Channel Island codriver Stewart Merry were in action in their JPM Motorsport Subaru Impreza and after a steady start, they soon climbed the leaderboard into second where they stayed until the finish eventually finishing just 12 seconds down on winner Alan Oldfield, from York, in his Darrian.

The Northallerton pairing of Graeme Bell and Russ Radford were also competing and after holding fifth place for much of the event, they upped the pace towards the end to bring their Den Motorsport Ford RS2500 home in fourth overall taking a class win in the process.

The Whitby crew of Neil Marshall and Steven Perry made it a successful weekend for the region when they finished third in class en route to 19th overall in their Peugeot 205.

THE awards presentation for the 2013 British Rallycross Championship took place recently with three local drivers picking up silverware.

After changing championships halfway through the 2013 season from the Suzuki Swift Championship to the Super1600 Championship, Brompton driver Chris Mullen came away with an outstanding second place trophy.

If that wasn’t exciting enough, the Leeds-based Mullen Motorsport Team won an award for the best turnedout team.

Northallerton’s Drew Bellerby was also successful in winning the best newcomer award and taking third in the Junior Championship after only joining the series halfway through the year.

Fellow Northallerton driver Charlie Bean, who contested the full series, finished second in the Junior Championship.